Detroit Firefighters Spotted Ferrying People to Midtown Bar for Opening Day

A Detroit Fire Department rescue squad was caught on tape dropping off a group of revelers at a Midtown bar for Tigers Opening Day celebrations on Thursday.

The video, which was sent to Local 4 News, shows at least three people hopping out of the back of a fire truck and walking over to Midtown bar Old Miami, right next to where the truck stopped — a well-intentioned move, certainly, but something that the fire department probably shouldn’t be doing, as evidenced by the capital-letters Very Serious tone used by Local 4’s anchors and reporter.

The footage was shot on Thursday, and while Opening Day may have been postponed from Thursday due to rain, yet many bars (and their customers) went ahead with celebrations. That rain plays into this story, too: those who caught a ride in the firetruck included a retired firefighter and his family, and they were in a firehouse where the truck had stopped, and were planning to walk back to Midtown in the rain — but a kind-hearted officer offered a ride.

The rescue squad wasn’t even on duty (they were out on driver training) — and on top of that, Old Miami is right around the corner from the firehouse where the truck was headed. So it’s more of a “we’re going that way, hop in!” situation than any kind of “people are using fire department vehicles like taxis and wasting taxpayer money!” controversy, but Local 4 plays it up as enough of a scandal to the point that the Deputy Fire Commissioner conducted an investigation. In short: too bad, Detroit — looks like you won’t be able to hitch any more firetruck rides to the bar in future.

• Video appearing to show Detroit fire squad dropping people off at Midtown bar raises questions [Local 4]